Mainstream Republicans embrace McKenna

Mainstream Republicans of Washington have endorsed Attorney General Rob McKenna’s newly minted campaign for governor, in language so effusive you’d think they were adopting him.

“Rob McKenna truly represents the values of Washington State and is one of the most intelligent and genuine leaders I have ever met: We have never made so early an endorsement before but no one has deserved it more,” said former U.S. Rep. Sid Morrison, the group’s chair.

Mainstream Republicans hangs on to the heritage of the party back in days when it elected governors, captured U.S. Senate seats, and had a “bench” of political prospects.

Dan Evans was the only Washington governor to win three consecutive terms, and John Spellman (1981-85) was the state’s last GOP governor.

But the party has moved sharply rightward. In his last year as governor, Evans could not even get elected a delegate to the Republican National Convention.

Morrison ran for governor in 1992, losing the GOP primary by a narrow margin to conservative Attorney General Ken Eikenberry. Eikenberry was defeated in the general election by Democrat Mike Lowry.

A bevy of pro-Democratic groups — Planned Parenthood Votes, NARAL Pro-Choice Washington, the Washington State Labor Council — have sought this week to depict McKenna as a militant conservative hiding behind a moderate’s veneer.